Robbie Keane - Irish Football
Great

Robbie Keane
Ireland V Spain - World Cup 2002

Robbie Keane Introduction

Robbie Keane is Ireland's
record goal scorer having scored 68 goals in 146 matches for the Irish
senior international team. This is far more than the next highest Irish
goal scorer, Niall
Quinn who is on 21 goals. This goal scoring feat means that Robbie
Keane is truly an Irish soccer great.

During his international
career Keane has scored against Italy, Germany, France, Spain, and Holland
amongst many others. Many of his goals have been crucially important including
goals scored during the 2002 World
Cup finals. Cruelly, Robbie Keane and his Irish team mates, were deprived
of participation in the 2010 World Cup finals by the infamous hand ball
by France's Thierry Henry in the qualification play-off tie in Paris in
November 2009. A match in which Robbie scored a great finisher's goal
to bring the play-off tie to extra time.

Fittingly for a player
of his talents Keane finally led the Republic of Ireland to qualification
for the 2012 Euro finals in Poland
and Ukraine. His 52nd and 53rd goals for his country helping Ireland to
a comprehensive aggregate 5-1 win over Estonia in the Euro qualification
play-off
matches.

Keane the Younger

Robbie (Robert David) Keane
is from Fettercairn, Tallaght
in the south of Dublin. He was born on the 8th July 1980 and while he
dabbled a bit with Gaelic football when he played for Naomh Eanna GAA
club, his first love was soccer. He came to prominence in Irish schoolboy
football while playing for Dublin soccer club Crumlin
United. Keane came to the attention of Irish and British football
scouts when he score two goals for Leinster Youth against German opposition
in the form of Westfallen. Soon after this he was selected to represent
Ireland at under 16 and Youth levels. There followed considerable interest
from a number of big English clubs but Robbie Keane decided to join Wolverhampton
Wanderers, then managed by former English team manager Graham Taylor,
as he felt that it would be easier to make an early impact at a team in
the then First Division.

Robbie Keane's Career in England -
First Time Round

In July 1997 Robbie Keane
signed full professional terms with Wolves and made his debut in the first
match of the season in August against Norwich City. Keane scored both
goals in a 2-0 win for Wolves. The teenager went on to score 24 goals
in 67 matches for Wanderers. After sustained interest from a number of
top flight clubs Wolverhampton eventually sold Keane to Coventry City
for £6m in August 1999. This made Robbie Keane the most expensive
teenager in Premiership history up to that point. Yet again he marked
his debut by scoring both goals for Coventry in a 2-0 victory over Derby
County. Keane scored 12 goals in 34 matches and was attracting the interest
of a number of the more glamorous English clubs when, amazingly, he signed
for Inter Milan for £13m in July 2000.

Robbie Keane's
Short Football Career in Italy

Marcello Lippi, the manager
that signed Robbie Keane to Inter, was sacked after the first 2000/01
season match day after having faced a lot of criticism due to his poor
results in his previous season. Lippi was replaced by Marco Tardelli and
Keane fell down the pecking order of strikers at the Italian club. Somewhat
ironically Robbie's and Tardelli's paths were to cross at a later date
when the latter was appointed as assistant to Republic
of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni. Tardelli, somewhat belatedly,
came to recognise Keane's true quality as an international-class striker.
Robbie Keane's career with Internazionale came to an end after just 14
matches and three goals when Keane left Italy to join Leeds United on
a loan deal in December 2000.

Robbie Keane's Career
in England - Second Time Round

Once again Robbie Keane
got off to a flying start, scoring nine goals in his first 14 matches
for Leeds United. In May 2001 the Leeds manager, David O'Leary, made the
loan a permanent transfer when he paid £12m for the Irish striker.
The following season saw a rare dip in Keane's form and with competition
from the likes of Alan Smith, Mark Viduka and Robbie Fowler the Irishman
spent a good portion of the 2001/2002 sitting on the bench.

Following substantial
expenditure in the transfer market and declining fortunes on the football
pitch Leeds ran into major financial difficulties and were forced to cut
the wage bill and raise funds. Amongst other Leeds players Robbie Keane
was sold. In August 2003 he transferred to Tottenham Hotspur for a fee
of £7m. Robbie Keane scored 19 goals for Leeds United in 56 appearances.

In what was to become his
first stint with Spurs Robbie Keane at last found some stability in his
club career. He went on to rack up 254 appearances for the London outfit
scoring 107 goals notching his 100th competitive goal for Spurs in January
2008. Along the way Robbie Keane was made club captain which led to a
highly unusual situation when Spurs played Manchester City. With Richard
Dunne as the City captain it meant that both Premiership teams were led
out by two Irish players that were born in the same Dublin suburb of Tallaght.

In July 2008 Robbie Keane
got his "dream" move to the football club that he supported
as a boy back in Dublin, Liverpool FC.
For a base transfer fee of £19m Keane made a somewhat unexpected
move to Anfield in a move that should have improved Liverpool and guaranteed
the Irish player Champions League football. Despite the large fee paid
for the player Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez appeared to less than
enthusiastic about Keane. Robbie struggled to get regular game time and
even when he did get on to the pitch the goals refused to flow. Rumours
abounded that Benitez had never wanted to sign Keane and these seemed
to be confirmed when the striker returned to Tottenham Hotspur after just
28 appearances and seven goals for the Merseyside club. It proved to be
very good business for the London club as the fee paid to bring Robbie
Keane back was £13m rising to a maximum of £16m (depending
upon appearances), thus netting Spurs a profit of £3m at least.

In a surprise move Robbie
Keane went on loan to Glasgow Celtic on 1st February 2010 until the end
of the 2009/10 season. Keane had been unable to secure a place in the
Tottenham Hotspur side and decided that he needed to be playing regularly.
The loan move to Celtic provided this for Keane.

Robbie Keane - International Career

Robbie Keane's
First International Cap for Ireland

Robbie won his first senior
international cap for the Republic of Ireland in a friendly match against
the Czech Republic on 25th March 1998 in Olumuoc. The Irish lost the match
2-1. Later that year Robbie tasted success in an Irish jersey when he
was a part of Brian
Kerr's successful Under-18 squad that won the European Championship
in July 1998 in Cyprus. The Irish triumphed in the final against Germany
in a penalty shoot-out. Keane scored three goals during the tournament.
Robbie Keane is one of the very few Irish footballers to win a major international
tournament at any level.

Robbie
Keane's First International Goal for Ireland

In a 2000
Euro Qualifier against Malta at Lansdowne
Road (now the Aviva
Stadium) Robbie scored his first, and second, international goal for
the Republic of Ireland. The Irish ran out 5-0 winners in the match. He
went on to be the top Irish goal scorer with a total of five goals in
that qualifying campaign - a portent of things to come. Ireland narrowly
failed to qualify for the Euro 2000 finals losing out to Turkey on away
goals in a play-off.

Robbie Keane
- 2002 World Cup Finals

Following a memorable 2002
World Cup qualification campaign Ireland qualified for the World Cup
finals in Japan and South Korea although it was Roy
Keane and not Robbie that was the leading marksman in the qualifiers.
Robbie's dream of playing in the World Cup finals became something of
a nightmare due to the infamous Saipan
incident. Although the Irish squad was in some disarray after the
loss of their iconic captain they players responded positively and were
eliminated in the knockout stages in a penalty shoot-out with Spain. Keane
scored a vital last minute equaliser against Germany in the group stages.
He and Brazil's Ronaldo were the only players to score goals against beaten
finalists Germany in the 2002 World
Cup finals. He also scored in the 3-0 victory over Saudi Arabia and
he scored yet another late equaliser from the penalty spot against Spain
in the last 16 match. In the ensuing penalty shoot-out Robbie
Keane dispatched his penalty successfully although Ireland lost 3-2.

Keane - 2012 Euro Finals

Robbie Keane's seven goals
in the Euro 2012 qualification campaign
went a long way to ensuring Ireland's participation at Euro 2012 in Poland
and Ukraine. Participation at the Euros was one major glaring gap on the
Tallaghtman's international CV. Unfortunately for Keane and Ireland it
proved to be a bittersweet experience as Ireland were comprehensively
beaten by Croatia, Spain
and Italy. Ireland conceded
nine goals conceded and scored just one. At no stage during any of the
matches did Keane look close to getting his name on the score sheet. Sterile
tactics by Irish football manager Giovanni Trapattoni and poor form by
Keane saw to that. As ever with Robbie Keane he played with all heart
but of this occasion it wouldn't be enough to make the difference.

Robbie Keane
- Becomes All Time Top Goal Scorer for Ireland

In October 2001 Niall
Quinn had overtaken Frank
Stapleton's Irish goal scoring record when Quinn scored his 21st goal
for Ireland against Cyprus. It took Quinn 92 matches for Ireland to amass
that total. In September 2004 Robbie Keane matched Niall Quinn's total,
once again against Cyprus, after just 53 international caps. Just over
a month later Robbie Keane became the outright top Irish goal scorer when
he netted twice against the Faroe
Islands for Brian Kerr's (who was to become the International manager
of the Faroe's in April 2009) Irish side in a 2006
World Cup qualifier. Since then Robbie went on to score as more goals
than his two predecessors at the top of the Irish scoring charts (Stapleton
and Quinn) put together. At the time of writing it is difficult to see
Robbie Keane's Irish scoring record ever being beaten. When Keane scored
a hat trick against Gibraltar
in a Euro
2016 qualifier he became the all-time European record holder for goals
scored in Euro qualifiers. His total of 21 goals in Euro qualifiers alone
is equal to the total scored by Niall Quinn in all competitions and friendlies.

Robbie Keane
- Captain of the Republic of Ireland

When Stephen
Staunton became the Irish manager in 2006 he appointed Robbie Keane
as the captain of Ireland. He went on to captain his country for a
record 72 matches. Keane repaid Staunton's trust by scoring a
goal against Sweden
in a 3-0 win at Lansdowne Road in Robbie's first match as captain. Unfortunately
for both Keane and Staunton the following 2008
Euro qualification campaign was something of a disaster. The FAI
took an enormous risk by appointing the totally inexperienced Staunton
as the Irish manager. It was a risky decision that backfired disastrously,
and specifically, when the Irish team was routed 5-2 in Nicosia in October
2006. The Irish stumbled through the rest of the qualifiers in an incoherent
way and finished a full ten points adrift of second-placed Germany in
the group. Some commentators attempted to spread some of the blame for
the shambolic group performances by Ireland to Robbie Keane's captaincy.
The combination of a rookie manager and a rookie captain certainly did
not help the Irish cause however, unlike Staunton, Robbie Keane grew into
his role.

This was confirmed when
the vastly experienced Giovanni
Trapattoni became the Irish team manager, he retained Robbie as the
captain of the Republic of Ireland. Keane lead from the front during the
2010 World
Cup qualifying campaign. He scored five of Ireland's 12 goals in the
group games and also the vital equaliser against France in the play-off
in Paris in November 2009. His goals in the group matches directly contributed
10 points of the total of 18 that Ireland amassed. Contrary to the opinion
of some sections of the media Robbie Keane, can and does, score against
the bigger soccer powers. Goals in Bari against Italy and in Paris against
France in important competitive matches put paid to that notion.

Robbie Keane won his 100th
cap for the Republic of Ireland as captain against Argentina on 18th August
2010 at the Aviva Stadium.
A single goal from Angel Di Maria won the match for Argentina. On the
12 October 2012 Robbie Keane equalled Andy Townsend's record of captaining
the Republic of Ireland 40 times when he led the Irish team out against
Slovakia in a Euro
2012 qualifier.

Robbie Keane - Summary

From humble beginnings
in the Glenshane estate in the Dublin suburb of Tallaght Robbie Keane
has risen to major heights in Premiership and International soccer. He
has been involved in transfers valued in excess of €80m. Robbie has
scored more goals than any other Irish player in the history of the Premiership.
He is, by some distance, the highest goal scorer for the Irish international
team. His scoring ratio for Ireland is only second to Jimmy
Dunne - who played a mere 15 matches for Ireland. Keane faced
adversity and some doubters throughout his career and on every occasion
he rose to any challenges that have confronted him. Not only is he a
success on the football pitch he is also known for his bright personality
and his generosity off the pitch and he has never forgotten his roots.
Robbie Keane has been a great supporter of Fettercairn
YFC and is president of the club. Robbie Keane, a true Irish soccer
great.